Hair highlighting is a selective coloring of hair. It is also known as a streaking, frosting, tipping, color texturing, partial lightening of hair, weaving or highlighting. The chemicals used for treating hair for highlighting include lighteners such as bleaching agents which remove all or some of the natural pigment, and coloring agents, toners, or tints which apply color directly to the hair. A toner is a semi-permanent color stain. After the chemicals have been applied to the hair and the desired color is achieved, the hair is shampooed or rinsed to remove the chemicals.
Two basic methods exist for highlighting hair. One of the methods is shown in FIG. 3 and includes the use of a perforated tight-fitting rubber or plastic cap and a crochet hook. The cap is placed on a customer's head and the hair strands to be highlighted are pulled by the crochet hook from the root area of the head and through the individual holes in the perforated cap. Chemicals such as bleach or tint are then applied to the pulled strands of hair lying outside the cap to create the desired hair color.
If bleach has been applied to the hair, the head is covered with a non-perforated plastic cap to contain the head's heat and keep the bleach warm and moist, which hastens the chemical reaction. After a desired period of time, the cap is removed and the hair is shampooed or rinsed with water to remove the bleach. Subsequently, a toner may be applied to the hair.
The cap method for highlighting hair is problematic. One of the problems is that it may be uncomfortable for the customer when strands of hair are pulled from the root area and through the cap perforations. Other problems are that the process is slow, unpredictable, and without pattern or style.
Additionally, it is difficult even with a transparent cap for a hair stylist to see the hair root area to determine whether the correct strands of hair are being pulled out from underneath the cap. Moreover, the bleach or coloring agent may seep unperceivably through the holes in the cap. The hidden chemical seepage to the hair underneath the cap causes blotch-like color accidents which the stylist is prevented from seeing and correcting until the coloring process is completed and the cap is removed.
Furthermore, a limited number of highlighting styles may be created with the cap method. Customized highlighting is typically not available with such a cap, which is especially unfortunate in an industry in which customization is the key to a successful business.
The second basic method for highlighting, as shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, includes the use of a conventional rattail comb to section and separate hair to be highlighted. A rattail comb is a comb having conventional teeth, and a tapered, pointed extension or "rattail" extending from the portion of the comb with the teeth. In a hand weaving method using a rattail comb, a hair stylist forms or creates a section of hair by defining a thin rectangular like section of the scalp, as shown by the parallel lines in FIG. 6, with the pointed end of the tapered rattail extension. The stylist may actually run the pointed end of the rattail extension about a thin hypothetical rectangle on the scalp to create the section.
After a section of hair has been formed, the section of hair is then held between the fore and middle fingers of one hand, such as the left hand. The portion of the rattail comb with the conventional teeth is held with the thumb and fingers of the other hand, such as the right hand, with the rattail extension extending from the hand. Subsequently, with the pointed end of the tapered rattail extension leading the way, the rattail extension is weaved in and out of the thin section of hair in an up and down weaving manner. Accordingly, sub-sections or weaves of hair are created with sub-sections to be eliminated from highlighting woven below the rattail extension and the sub-sections to be highlighted woven above the rattail extension.
After the sub-sections or weaves have been formed by the rattail extension being fed through the hair section, the rattail extension of the comb is pushed downwardly toward the shoulder of the customer, pushing the unwanted hair below the rattail extension out of the stylist's left hand and back onto the head of the customer to be protected from highlighting. The sub-sections of hair remaining above the rattail extension is the weave portion and remains in the left hand of the stylist until it is laid onto foil, paper, or plastic-like pieces for treatment by highlighting chemicals such as tints o bleaches.
The foil, paper, or plastic like pieces contain and confine the hair so that the hair is controllable and separates and protects the confined hair to be chemically treated from hair which is to be retain its natural color. After one section of hair is weaved and color is applied, the hairstylist moves on to create another section of hair, which is weaved and colored, and proceeds to repeat the process until the entire head of hair has been sectioned, weaved, and colored.
The hand weaving method using the rattail extension requires an extremely competent hairstylist. One of the reasons the method requires a great amount of skill is the vast number of hairs on a human head. A head of hair may have 90,000 (ninety thousand) to 140,000 (one hundred and forty thousand) strands of hair. The average area of a head is about 120 square inches and an average of 1,000 hairs occupies each of the square inches of the head of hair.
With the hand weaving method using the rattail extension, one to approximately 100 (one hundred) sections may be formed on one head where each section measures approximately four inches across and one-eighth to one-half inches in height. Each section may be divided into three to 20 (twenty) subsections. Hence, three to 2,000 (two thousand) subsections of hair may be created on an entire head of hair.
With the hand weaving method using the rattail extension, each sub-section is desirably woven into an equal width. However, it requires an extraordinary amount of skill to quickly run the pointed end of the rattail extension in and out of one section of hair so that each of the possible 20 sub-sections or weaves is of equal width. Furthermore, if thin weaves are desired over the entire head of hair, it requires an even greater amount of skill to weave each of the sections identically so that each of the possible 2,000 sub-sections or weaves is of an equal width.
The hand weaving method with the rattail comb is time consuming even for the adept hairstylist. After each of the sections is weaved, it is confined to a protective piece of foil or plastic. Each of the sub-sections is then immediately chemically treated. If the time period between the chemical treatments of the first and last treated sub-sections of hair is too long, then the first and last treated sub-sections of hair may be of different tones, especially if the chemical applied to the hair is a fast acting lightener or bleach. Hence, the end results of the hand weaving method using the rattail comb may include an irregular coloring of the hair, as well as hair sub-sections of different thicknesses.
As previously mentioned, the current and only artform used more commonly today by creative hairstylists is the hand hairweaving method done with a rattail comb and a patient hairstylist weaving pieces all over the head. Not to discredit the first method mentioned, the cap technique, it is still used as well, but mainly, because, it is less time consuming and/or the stylist has less confidence or adeptness to use the hand weave method. The cap method is also more painful to the client because the hair is pulled through the holes in the cap with a crochet hook and can cause much discomfort. It is, therefore, another reason the hand weaving method is preferred if the stylist is adept and has mastered the technique.
Both methods leave alot to be desired for the more discriminating stylist. The cap method, besides being painful, is hard for the hair stylist to see the area from where the hair is being pulled from under the cap. Also, seapage of the bleach or color can occur thru the holes in the cap and can cause blotchey color accidents on the hair underneath the cap that the stylist does not see until the process is over, and the cap is removed. With the hand weave method, a certain amount of speed must be obtained so that the first section will be colored as evenly as the last section. This technique is difficult in maintaining consistancy and evenness in weaving the same size pieces and spaced the same distance thru out the head when time is of the essence with color processing while you work.
The comb I have designed will eliminate the time consuming and nerve racking method of hand weaving and the painful unexpecting cap method. My comb may have a rattail on the end used for sectioning the hair, with a regular and evenly spaced comb on one side, to comb the hair smooth and prepare it to be weaved, and on the other side of the comb, is the hairweaving comb. The hairweaving side of the comb will, in one step, push the unwanted hair not be weaved down and out of the way so that all remaining hair can be placed on pieces of foil to be colored.
There may be several combs made of the same basic design that would be spaced from close to far apart and with thin to thick weaves to allow for stylists creativity and individuality in expression of the artform of color texturizing, hairweaving or highlighting, (just a few of the names more commonly used to describe the process).